Chillediplier: The Convention
by Chillediplier
Summary: ChilledChaos and Markiplier meet each other throughout VidCon, how far will the new friendship go? Rated T for occasional language. Updated with more chapters from popularity :D
1. The Elevator

VidCon 20XX was under way, and many channel runners large and small came from every corner to attend. At this time, it was a Thursday evening, where attendees were only energetic enough to bring their things to the hotel rooms, and maybe mingle with a few others. Some of the larger channel runners had to go to the main convention area to set up for their schedules with panels and booths for meeting fans.

As the sign-ups wound down, the YouTubers dispersed to respective hotel rooms for the night. The group channels, like Game Grumps and Achievement Hunter, had collected in the rooms together, while single channels like Seananners and CaptainSparklez all had their own rooms. And after a half hour, only a few creators were left in the lobby.

One was waiting for the rest of his 'crew' to arrive, one particular Canadian member being worriedly late. The other YouTuber was more than happy to stick around the lobby and chat up with a few fans. After the mingle greet, he made his way for the elevator, being reluctantly followed by the taller Italian YouTuber, who had given up on trying to get a hold of his friends, feeling to exhausted from the trip there to wait any longer.

They each stepped into the small elevator, giving one another a polite nod for a moment, then remaining silent. But in one quiet moment, the elevator gave a violent shake, as the two men inside, nervously balanced themselves from the jolt.

"…That didn't sound good…" the shorter man muttered, looking to the other.

"Uhhmm…" he looked around, biting his lip and pushing the red button at the bottom of the floor buttons. "…Well, this sucks."

Once he had hit the button, the UV lights above them turned a hint of red, illuminating the elevator in a deep glow. This was supposed to alert security of a faulty elevator, but the shorter man looked around tensely.

"Great…" he muttered, looking down and rubbing his arm.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, fine, just…yeah, I'm ok…"

It was in that moment, the taller one tilted his head and turned to full attention to the other.

"Wait, aren't…aren't you Markiplier?"

The shorter man looked up and nodded, still looking concerned. "Y-Yeah, I am. Just…trying to get to my room."

"Yeah, same, but hey, it's good to meet you at least, probably not the best place to meet in though, huh?" he said, giving a half smile.

"That's for sure…" Mark responded with a stunted laugh. He looked up to the other, pausing briefly, before standing a little straighter. "You look familiar. You have a channel too, right?"

"Yeah, though it's far from as big as yours is. Channel, I mean, well, I'm assuming that too, but…" his brief innuendo allowed the two of them to laugh for a moment. "Yeah, I'm ChilledChaos. Or you can just call me Anthony if you'd like."

"Oh, yeah, Wade talks about you every so often. I've been checking out a few of your videos, they're pretty good!"

"So are yours, dude, I just saw the one you uploaded a while back, with the game about…" he paused, remembering the video he was referring to. A video that affected several of Mark's fans, and Mark himself. A video about a game that they had just unintentionally gotten into a similar situation as such game.

Presentable Liberty.

He chuckled nervously and shook his head, looking back to Mark with more concern than before. He could tell that Mark was back in his tense thoughts, as he tried to push the other buttons for any sort of reaction. "They should be moving us soon…"

"Hopefully…hopefully this isn't just some sort of big joking test someone's pulling on us…"

Anthony looked back over to him, knowing the situation was bringing back the loneliness of what the game did to him. He shook his head and smiled, leaning against the railing of the elevator.

"No, we're probably just going to have to wait a little while for this to start running again. And then…" he smiled wider, recalling one of his older videos. "The top floor will have a billiards room and a big TV, with a mini-casino."

"Yeah," Mark smiled with a sigh, having also played the game he spoke of. "We just have to go through a bunch of nonsense levels, possibly exceeding the weight limit with Half Life characters coming in."

"There's that…" Anthony nodded, before remembering a video of Mark's that he had seen, one of the first videos he had seen of his. "Or it's going to open and start flying around like some Willy Wonka hell."

"Oh, fuck, I'd rather not!" Mark laughed, gripping the railing as well.

Anthony decided to keep Mark as distracted as possible, whether it be through talking about games either of them played for their channel, to talking about friends and family, how they got about YouTube, and as the minutes became hours, they didn't really run out of many things to talk about. Eventually, the elevator jarred back to life, the motion startling them. Through the series of laughter and conversations, they hadn't even realized how tired they had become. And upon reaching their floor, chucking at how they were on the same level, they walked to Anthony's hotel room.

"Dude, it's been so great talking to you," Mark started, mid-yawn. "If I was in there by myself, I don't know what would have happened."

"I think we both know, Mark…" Anthony responded, shrugging, before sighing and patting him on the shoulder. "I saw what the game did to you…and it's gotta feel pretty lonely sometimes, trust me, I understand it. Sometimes, doing YouTube makes you feel like there's really no one else there, when you're recording by yourself so much. That's why I do a lot of multiplayer stuff, it gets to me too, the loneliness…"

"Maybe that's what I need. Bob, Wade and I haven't done much stuff together recently…they've both always been too busy."

"Well, look. I'm still getting settled into my new apartment back in Connecticut. If you ever feel like recording stuff with me, once I'm finished with everything, I'll message you and we can talk it over in more detail. Ok?" Anthony requested, a genuine smile on his face.

Mark, always being one to focus on his own channel rather than merging with others, thought on it briefly. He did seem like a funny guy to game with. And, well, he helped him. If Mark was alone in there, too many thoughts of Presentable Liberty would have just flooded back into his head, as he had just only gotten over them at this point. After a moment, he nodded, sighing softly.

"Ok. Keep me updated. When you're free, I'll give you my Skype and we can go from there."

"Alright, that works for me." Anthony smiled again, before stretching a bit. "Welp, I need to go to bed. I was supposed to meet up with my friend Steven, and he texted me saying he was going to come by early tomorrow, and it's already two o'clock."

"Shit, really?" Mark asked, looking at his watch. "I had no idea it was that late! I need to get to a panel at ten tomorrow!"

"Well, that's a little after Steven should be here, mind if we come and check it out?"

"Sure thing, man, I'd love to have you there…" Mark's face turned a slight red as he stammered briefly. "I mean, not in that way, obviously, I just…I think I'm too tired to speak proper English words."

"It's fine, dude," Anthony chuckled. "Ze and I are already pegged as internet boyfriends. Long story. I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Alright. Goodnight, Anthony~"

"Goodnight, Mark."

They parted ways as Anthony stepped into his room and promptly went to bed. Mark, on the other hand, stayed awake for a little while longer, his thoughts running through what had happened on this most eventful first night of VidCon. Eventually, he took to his bed, his phone on his pillow, earbuds in ears, as he listened to a familiar, calming voice speak in his head, easing him to sleep.

"_Welcome, Internet~"_


	2. The Panel

The morning alarm buzzed in the loose ear bud left in Mark's right ear. It felt like he had only just fallen asleep, as he groaned back to consciousness, his phone nearly out of battery. "Dammit," he muttered, forgetting to plug it in the night before. It was eight o'clock, so he quickly plugged it in and went into the hotel room's shower to prepare for the day's panel and events.

Meanwhile, Anthony took to waiting for his friend, Steven, in the lobby. Once he finally arrived, several worrisome minutes late, Anthony stepped over to him, jokingly scolded him for a moment, then attended a few panels with him. Most of them short, only a half hour long for each of them, then they shared a breakfast together, Anthony guilting Steven to pay, seeing as he was constantly late. All the while, Mark's panel remained in the back of Anthony's head, as he was more than willing to check it out, but just if Steven was alright with it.

Mark had managed to clean up and get dressed, before a knocking was heard on his hotel door. He opened it, seeing his close friend, Wade, on the other side.

"Hey, you almost ready? The panel starts in ten minutes," he said, checking his watch.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go," Mark replied hurriedly, grabbing his phone from the charging cord and stepping out of his hotel room, following Wade to a separate elevator from the previous night. He made sure it was different, that's for sure.

They made it to the convention hall without a problem, as Mark spoke to Wade about the experience he had last night.

"So, I met a friend of yours last night," he started, chuckling a bit at the memory. "Chilled's here."

"Oh! It's about time, I've never been able to hang out with both of you before," Wade said with a smile.

"Now, hang on, we just met in the elevator, it got stuck last night, and we talked for a while."

"Still, you two finally met, that's great!"

"Heh, well, don't expect too much, we might game in the future, but that's really it..." he finished, with an odd feeling of unsure at the end of his sentence. Why did Wade want them to meet so much? Probably just wanted to have more people to game with. That's what he thought at least.

They found their panel room, with a line of people already waiting. Most, upon seeing Mark and Wade enter, began to cheer, both in a fan moment of finally meeting the two of them, and in relief that they didn't have to wait any longer.

In the crowd, a tall Anthony had met with some mutual fans in line, occasionally making cute poses or quips with his Canadian friend in tow. As the line began moving, someone asked him one last question.

"You're a Markiplier fan, Chilled?"

"Well, sorta, I actually just met him yesterday, and I've wanted to check out more YouTubers' panels this year."

"I've met him a couple of times through Adam, or Seananners, we gamed now and then on his channel," Steven said as they stepped in. "He's a pretty cool guy, really good to his fans, too."

Anthony nodded, finding a seat towards the center of the panel room, Steven sitting next to him. The panel began shortly after everyone came in and found a seat, Wade sitting at the stage already, as Mark was waiting off stage.

"Well," Wade began, looking around with a rather goofy smile. "Welcome to Lordminion777's panel! Uh, I'm glad you all came, and I'll start taking questions now!"

An awkward silence fell over the audience, that alone causing them to laugh, including Anthony. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out to him.

"We love ya, Wade!"

Wade looked to the direction of the call and smiled. "Hey...Hey!" he laughed and pointed to him. "ChilledChaos is here, everyone! And Ze!"

A few people clapped for them, as it suddenly grew louder upon the sight of Mark finally stepping out to confront Wade.

"...What the fuck are you doing, Wade?" he asked after a moment of the two of them staring at each other in rehearsed annoyance.

"I'm...getting the panel started, Mark."

"You mean, 'our' panel, not just yours."

"Well, didn't the agenda say, 'LordMinion777's Panel featuring Markiplier'?"

Mark grabbed a copy of the schedule from his back pocket and opened it, looking to it for a moment. The schedule did, in fact, say that, all for the sake of this joke.

"...Barry! Run the intro again!" he shouted, tossing the agenda over his head and sitting down. Several fans, including Anthony, laughed and applauded, as Mark and Wade chuckled to each other.

"That went a lot better than I thought it would," Wade said, adjusting the microphone on the desk in front of them.

"It really did, wow, that was hilarious," Mark chuckled, before looking around in the crowd. "Hey, guys!"

Applause from the audience echoed all the way through the hall outside. Mark began scanning up and down, before seeming to lean back and forth.

"Where is..." he started, looking over to Wade. "You said someone was here?"

"Yeah," Wade said, pointing over to Anthony with a smile. "Chilled and Ze showed up!"

Mark turned and smiled, waiving quickly to the two. "Hey, guys! Glad you could show up!"

"Glad we could make it!" Anthony called back with a grin.

Acknowledgement between the two was minimal after that, just the occasional joke Anthony tossed in here and there. Eventually, the hour long panel wound down, after Mark received several hugs and gifts from the fans, as well as Wade. As the crowd dispersed back into the hall, Mark and Wade left through the back entry. Anthony and Steven left with the crowd, but Anthony quickly noticed he had left his hat behind. Already having lost his trademark Mario hat shortly before the move from New York to Connecticut, even though he found it, he wasn't about to lose it again.

He hurried back in the grab it, finding it was on the seat next to him. "Dammit, Ze, could grab it for me..." he muttered, chuckling. "We are so over."

As he reached to grab it, another hand was _just _about to. He looked up to spot Mark reaching down to grab it as well, stopping only when he noticed Anthony.

"Oh, shit, that would have been bad..." Mark said with a laugh.

"Could we not be the cliché B RomCom please?" Anthony laughed as well, taking his hat and putting it on. "I thought you already left, though."

"Well, the Game Grumps panel starts here soon, I was gonna stick around and watch it."

"Huh, ok, well..." Anthony thought briefly, his Meet-and-Greet booth wasn't going to open or another few hours now, and Ze had already left to meet with The Creatures, so Anthony was completely free. Though, he wasn't much of a Game Grumps fan, at least not to the extent that Mark was, but hey, it was something to do, maybe have a few laughs with a new friend.

"Ok, is it alright if I chill with you?"

"Was that supposed to be a pun?" Mark asked, smirking and sitting down in the seat previously occupied by Ze.

"Not really, or was it?" Anthony responded, a devious look out of the corner of his eye. He soon laughed and sat down next to him, easily strumming up a conversation with Mark, then another and another. The panel started in a half hour, and Anthony found himself enjoying it quite a bit. The Game Grumps were amusing to watch, sure, but in between questions, Mark and he were exchanging jokes, referencing each other's videos, and just laughing together. And Anthony couldn't help but have a shared thought with Mark

_Why hasn't Wade introduced us sooner?_


	3. The Booth

After the Game Grumps panel, Anthony texted Steven to see if he was done with what he was doing with The Creatures. He lingered a bit as Mark talked with Arin and Danny for a while, waiting for Steven to respond. A half hour passed, still nothing. He decided to just let him go about what he was doing. He stepped back in, as the shorter Mark accidentally bumped square into his chest, his taller stature making it like hitting a soft wall.

"Oh, jeez, I'm so sorry!" Anthony apologized, looking Mark over as he laughed, seeming unfazed by the impact.

"No, it's ok, I'm good!" Mark responded, readjusting the glasses on his nose. "You alright?"

"Yeah, trust me, takes a lot more than a soft bump to hurt me," he said, smirking with a joke flex. "Been working out for months now, turning into a block of steel~"

"A rather squishy block of steel, that is."

"Oh, that cuts deep, Mark..." he said, looking away in mock sadness, though unable to keep it up for long, as he got back a text from Steven. He looked to his phone, sighing a bit.

"What's up?" Mark asked, not wanting to directly look at his phone.

"Nothing, apparently, Steve's gonna hang out with his Creature friends for the rest of the day..."

"Ah, I'm sorry," Mark said with sympathy. "I wish I could hang out with you more, but I have an autograph booth to get to, I can't be late for it."

"That's fine, I have one, too, but it was supposed to be us and two of our other friends. But, turns out, one of them is home sick and the other couldn't afford the trip, so, it's just Steve and I...now he's not even here."

"Aw, dude...I'm really sorry, but I need to get going...I'll...I'll hang with you after, ok?" Mark said, patting his arm briefly before stepping away, hesitantly, but also swiftly to get to the booth on time. Anthony, taking a slower stride, followed in the direction Mark was heading.

The autograph lines were long for both YouTubers, though much longer for Mark's. He gave nearly each fan a unique signature and even a few photos. Anthony, on the other hand, got drawing requests, which was a trend for his autograph booths. He has never claimed to be a 'good' artist, most of the drawings were crayon stick-ish figure, to get the fan's idea across. It was just the fact that _he_ was drawing and signing them that they loved. He kept the fact that Ze was missing off of his mind while focusing on each fan request.

"You on a rocket flying to the moon to save Jess."

"A monkey playing a cello."

"A sock gnome in your drawers."

Yeah, most of them were nonsense, until one of the last fans showed up, wearing a black shirt with a white 'M', a pink moustache on it.

"Hey, Chilled!" the fan began, holding two papers in her hands. "I kind of have a weird one..."

"Doubt it's gonna be much weirder than anything else I've heard today," he replied with a smile.

"Well, I just got out of Markiplier's signing booth," she said, pointing over to the still massive line leading to the sitting Tuber. Anthony looked over and nodded with a smile.

"Ok, what would you like?"

"Uh, could you draw yourself and Mark, uh," she said with a nervous chuckle. "Maybe kissing, while Ze's in the corner looking jealous?"

Anthony laughed a bit, rubbing his lips, a sign that he was feeling a little awkward. "Yeah, that's cool, it'll show Ze for not showing up with me today," he said, taking the paper from her to start drawing.

"Ok, and just in case you need it to help draw his face, I have a photo he just signed, here you go~"

She handed him a rather...impressive and iconic photo of Mark displaying his charity pajama pants on his stairs, looking out the window in a dramatic pose, a flannel shirt left unbuttoned, holding a Minecraft Creeper mug. Anthony laughed at the choice of pictures at first, then began drawing.

He found it easy to draw Ze at first, a small, angry chibi with his trademark red viking helmet on, silently fuming in the direction of a puckering Chilled. But as he began drawing Mark, he couldn't help but keep looking at the photo the fan provided. He hadn't seen that picture before, and, well, it did showcase his chest pretty well. That was Mark's joking intention to get word out about the pants. He found himself distracted, and occasionally, lost within it.

"Uhm, I sort of have to go soon, sorry..."

"Huh?" Anthony looked up, before stammering quickly. "O-Oh, sorry, sorry, I'll hurry up," he said, quickly doodling in Mark puckering in his direction. And with a quick signature, he handed the drawing and photo back.

"Thank you~" the fan thanked him happily, walking off.

He waved and sighed, adjusting his Mario hat timidly. Why did he suddenly feel flustered? Was it the photo? Something was going on in his head that he would only joke around about with Steven. He looked over to Mark's booth, seeing how busy he still was. But after noticing how his own booth was empty, he put up the "Will Be Right Back" sign and grabbed a piece of paper from the spare pile of blanks under his booth, getting to work on a drawing. Soon after, he got in line for Mark's booth.

"Thank you so much! I've wanted to meet you for so long~" the fan ahead of Anthony said happily to Mark as he signed a photo. Anthony noticed that a series of photos were left to chose from for him to sign, with only one of the pajama pants model shot left.

"Thank you for being a fan, I'm glad to have met every one of you here," he said with a grateful smile before handing the photo back. As they stepped away, Anthony glanced over, a bit shyly to him.

"Hey, Anthony! You done with your booth?" Mark asked, the smile on his face wide as if greeting a long time friend.

"Uh, yeah, I just wanted to come by and see how you were doing here, and, well, maybe get a picture signed, if that's ok?"

"Sure! I didn't even know you were interested!"

"Yeah, well, I texted Jess that I met you, and she wanted me to grab one," Anthony responded, trying not to be too obvious with lying through his teeth.

"Ah, ok, well, pick your picture, and I'll sign it for ya!"

He acted like he took a moment skimming through the photos, before stopping at the one he wanted, the pajama shot.

"Heh, I'm pretty sure she'd like this one," he said, handing it over.

"Alright, and good job, you got the last one," Mark said, signing it with his real name, Mark Fischbach, and added a small warfstache at the bottom as an underline. He handed it back to him with a grin. "Here you go, and I hope everything works out between you and your friend, it's a shame you haven't been able to hang out as much..."

"Yeah, it's alright, though, he hasn't spent time with his Creature friends in a while anyways," Anthony said, before fiddling with a folded piece of paper in his hand. "And, well, I know you weren't charging, but I wanted to do a...sort of a trade I guess, a picture for a picture, since my booth was all about me drawing. I hope you don't mind that I drew something for you..."

"Dude, that's awesome! I love getting art from fans, I have a whole wall back home." Mark smiled wider as Anthony handed him the folded paper.

"I hope you like it...sorry, but I gotta break down my panel, I'm gonna take a break from the con for a while. I'll see you later, ok?"

Anthony left too fast for Mark to respond, as he shrugged and was about to open the paper, before another fan interrupted him. He saw that his line was still pretty long, so he decided to slide the paper into his pocket. As he continued signing, he finally had a slow moment, so he took the paper back out and unfolded it. The drawing was of Tiny Box Tim smiling wide with Chilled's trademark Mario hat on, hanging off the side of his head. Mark laughed, thinking it was absolutely adorable, and noticed that he had signed it with a message at the corner.

"_Thanks for being there when no one else was,_

_Anthony."_


End file.
